Persona 3: Free Each Spirit
by Hawkeye Reticle
Summary: Only the overpowered and connected survive. Hamuko's in for another fun, but different kind of ride, where the world is her very enemy and just does not want her to win. After all when the first player starts cheating, the other starts too.


Whistling a merry tune, a girl with auburn hair and scarlet eyes walked through the streets of Iwatodai. She passed by tall, dark coffins that stood imposingly in the sickly back light of the moon. The buildings and houses were bathed with an emerald light, and the floor covered with blood strewn across like spilt paint. It was dark, for the streetlamps offered no illumination.

Despite the apparent strangeness of the once bustling city, she still pushed on, trying to find a way to her designated dormitory. She was absolute rubbish at directions, even with a map. After some minutes of wandering, blindly following street signs, splashing in red puddles and a liberal amount of humming, she finally did make her way to the dorm featured in her student pamphlet. The girl opened the doors to find the lounge of the building, along with a counter to the side.

"Welcome." She froze up, hearing the voice. "I've been waiting a long time for you."

She turned her attention to a mysterious young boy that looked no older than ten. He was dressed in a black and white striped garb akin to prison uniform. To be honest, the girl couldn't decide whether it was actually prison uniform or just badly coloured pyjamas. His hair was black, skin pale and eyes a piercing blue.

"Sorry to keep you," she laughed nervously. All the while, the boy had an amused smile on his lips. "The trains were just really late," the girl explained.

The mysterious boy chuckled. "It's alright. I know, because I'm always with you," he said. Wondering on the meaning of his words but finding no will to ask what he meant, she followed his hand when he gestured to the counter. "Well then, if you want to proceed, please sign your name here." The boy indicated a red folder that sat innocently on the tabletop, which seemed to open on his command.

"It's a contract. Don't worry. All it says is that you will take full responsibility for your actions," he explained. "You know… the usual stuff."

The girl gave him a curious look, wondering what he meant by 'usual stuff'. She decided however, that she couldn't dwell on it, that she'd seen weirder and that it was some slightly unorthodox procedure that she hadn't encountered yet. There were a lot of places she hadn't been to after all, even if she'd lived in Japan before.

She took the quill next to the red folder and read over the words on the paper over and over again. It read in English, 'I chooseth this fate of mine own free will.'

Her hand moved to the line below the words and wrote, again in English, 'Hamuko Arisato'. She put the pen down, handing the contract to the boy.

He chuckled and took the contract into his arms, hugging it close to his chest like a toy. "Time never waits. It delivers us all to the same end. You can't plug your ears or cover your eyes…" he said. The contract seemed to disappear into thin air. Before Hamuko could ask what had happened he'd already started melting into the darkness, leaving behind these words:

"And so… it begins."

Hamuko hadn't even realised that she'd stopped breathing until the heavy atmosphere had dissipated. Thoughts about the boy were racing through her mind. Most of them were questions. However, her train of thought was interrupted when she heard a voice come down from the stairs.

"Who's there!?" A girl rushed down the steps, looking at Hamuko with narrowed eyes. Hamuko was caught off guard by her, almost not understanding what she was saying. She'd been talking to that boy in English, and suddenly hearing Japanese surprised her. The girl at the steps was a brunette who looked to be her age. She wore a pink cardigan over her uniform and had brown eyes that matched her hair.

Hey wait, wasn't that a gun strapped to her thigh? And holy crap, she took it from the holster!

Hamuko's jaw set. Was the girl going to use it? Did she even know how to use it? From her trembling, she assumed not. But those very thoughts made her afraid to think that this brunette would try to use the gun without knowing how to use it. The trembling told her she was scared.

It was probably the most perfect timing when yet another, more mature voice came bounding down the stairs. "Takeba, wait!" It belonged to a red haired girl like her, also in school uniform. The command from the redhead did nothing to calm the first a little.

"B-But senpai, she…" Hah! Hamuko had figured that the second girl was a senior.

The lights that had been off all that time, flickered to life when the green tint faded. By then, Hamuko could see the both of them clearly.

"I didn't think you'd arrive so late," the senior said with a small smile. "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students that live at this dorm."

"Who is she?" the brunette asked.

"This is a transfer student. She'd been assigned to this dorm while the rooms were still being sorted out at the girl's dormitory. She shouldn't be here long," Mitsuru explained briefly.

"Is it okay for her to be here?" the first girl said, glancing at Hamuko.

"I guess we'll see," Mitsuru said. "This is Yukari Takeba. She'll be a junior this spring, just like you."

"U-Uh, hi…" Yukari greeted awkwardly.

"Nice to meet you," Hamuko smiled. "My name's Hamuko Arisato," she said. Yukari was taken aback by Hamuko's enthusiasm. How was it that she was so peppy at such late hours?

In any case, she had to reply. "Nice to meet you too," Yukari said, reciprocating Hamuko's smile.

"I suppose that you must be tired after all of your travelling. Your room is on the third floor at the end of the hall. Takeba will lead you there," Mitsuru explained. She gave a glance to her kohai, prompting her to action.

"Right," Yukari said after some hesitation. "Follow me!" With that, the two juniors headed upstairs. Deciding to break the silence and say the question nagging at her, Yukari asked, "How is it that you're so full of energy? I mean, it's so late. Shouldn't you be tired?"

"Well, I am tired!" Hamuko replied. "But, I'm kind of a night owl… and I've had way too much coffee today." It was certainly true. Up until then, Hamuko had been well and truly stuck into school. However, there was something… Well, it was either fortunate or the complete opposite.

Where she'd come from, the holidays and school days didn't match up with Japan's. It'd just be like she had an extra-long school year with a strangely placed break in the middle. In any case, the reason for the coffee was because exams had been getting started earlier in the year.

"Wow, really? How much have you had exactly?" Yukari blinked.

"Uh…" Hamuko tried to recount the number of cups she'd thrown away that day. She rummaged through her bag, finding yet _another_ coffee cup inside. Yukari shook her head, trying to see whether what she'd just saw was real or not. If she still had one in her bag, it certainly worried her as to how much she'd drank. "I guess that makes seven?"

She guessed. Yukari sighed, "Why were you drinking so much of it?"

"Well, back with my aunt and uncle, it was getting ready for the year eleven exams time. I was looking over my notes over and over again," Hamuko admitted. With her grades, she probably didn't really need to do such a thing, but sometimes she was just paranoid.

"Oh, right! You just came from Australia, right?" Yukari realised, connecting the dots. She'd read a little about Hamuko earlier, if she was being honest. However, that wasn't something she was going to say.

"Yup," Hamuko agreed. I seemed to have taken longer than usual, but they'd finally ended up at the room at the end of the third floor hallway. "Is this it?" she asked.

Yukari nodded. "Well, yeah. This is your room. Pretty easy to remember huh? Since it's right at the end of the hall," she said, fishing out a key from her cardigan pocket. "This is your key… and don't go losing it, or you'll never hear the end of it." Hamuko briefly wondered whether that was an indication Yukari had done something similar and experienced some kind of punishment for doing so. "So uh, that's it. Do you have any other questions?"

Hamuko did have a lot of questions, especially regarding the boy she had met prior. However, she didn't ask. She had the impression that maybe it was something she should keep to herself. Who would believe her crazy story anyways? Instead she asked, "Are there any other students living around here?"

"Yeah. There's another senior you haven't met yet. His name is Akihiko Sanada," Yukari answered. Hamuko seemed satisfied at that and she took the opportunity to go to another subject. "Um, on the way to the station, was everything… alright?"

"Nope. Nothing out of the ordinary," Hamuko replied. She'd figured Yukari might've been referring to the green time, but chose not to comment on it. If she did, especially if she was wrong, she probably would've appeared even more bat shit crazy than she already did.

Yukari opened her mouth to say something more, but she stopped herself. "I-I… never mind. I guess you're okay then," she gave a relieved smile. "Um, I'm sure you have other questions, but let's save them for later, okay? It's kinda late, and we still have school tomorrow."

"No worries! Good night Yukari," Hamuko said, noticeably leaving out the honorific. Crap. "Oh sorry! I'm used to calling people without them," she explained with a sheepish smile.

"Oh right. Don't worry about it. It's fine with me if you don't use them, especially since you're not as used to them," Yukari reassured.

"Well, to make it fair, you don't have to use one for me either," she said resolutely. "Anyways, good night! Morning!" Hamuko laughed.

Yukari again was surprised for… what, the third time that night, but decided to go along with it. Hamuko didn't seem like she was a bad person anyways. She laughed a little. "Good night," she said. With that, Yukari strode off towards the staircase.

Hamuko entered her own room, changed clothes, put her backpack down onto the floor and promptly fell asleep on her bed. There was no denying that after a rush of caffeine, one became much more tired.

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><p><strong>AN: Hello. Hawky here. I've been reading Fairly English Story and Death and Chaos again, and I just got the urge to write an OP Hamuko fic. So… here it is. Not too confident, but hope you guys like it. The start is slow now, and I'm sorry the chapter was short, but it should ease up later once we get into the meat of the story.<strong>

**Any feedback or reviews are appreciated.**

**Welp, see ya later.**


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